The Joint Conference of the American Academy of Religion and Society of Biblical Literature met in San Diego November 23-26, 2019. One of the first sessions held was an exploratory session entitled The Future of Anglican Studies. The goal of the session was to begin to think both deeply and broadly about the direction of Anglican studies beyond its colonialist roots and to imagine a future for Anglican studies both within the American Academy of Religion and beyond.

Each of the panelists brought their own unique perspective, from liturgical studies to Biblical studies to postcolonial theology. Understandable, there was a lot of emphasis on decolonization of Anglicanism, which is certainly important, even within the Episcopal Church which has a distinct path from Anglicanism more globally. Many panelists highlighted the importance of the global voices in Anglicanism, and the need for the voices from around the world – especially those who cannot make it to the American Academy of Religion conference – was espoused by several panelists.

I completely agree with all of those panelists’ voices – we need to raise up voices from the two-thirds majority world where the Church is still growing. These voices are marginalized and sidelined in our white, Western, (and most often) male centering of voices. 

However, I would also add that we still need to be attentive to the distinct issues facing the Western Anglican church – which is in decline. 

This is not a zero-sum game for Anglicanism. We need BOTH global voices AND a critical look at the distinct decline of the Western Anglican churches.

Interestingly, one paper highlighted a space where Western Anglican churches are bucking the trends of decline – cathedrals. The author, Martyn Percy of the University of Oxford, posited that the reason cathedrals are growing is that they have a low threshold to join and participate and a high return for the attendees. The majority of our churches frankly have a higher threshold to participate, engage, and join. While I am encouraged by the resilience of cathedrals (a recent article highlighted this trend), I doubt that the low expectations for cathedral attendance is the only thing going on here, and this would be a place where Western Anglican studies voices could add to the conversation that would be different from the also-needed global conversation.
In order to really have good conversations, we Anglicans need not just voices from across the West and beyond, but we need to have deeper and more sustained conversations between bishops, seminaries, and scholars in secular universities, as was highlighted by many of the panelists, and I would add that we also need congregations and the laity involved in these conversations as well. Kwok Pui Lan rightly pointed out that all of these conversations should be grassroots and not just from the top-down. She, for example, mentioned the possibility of a youtube channel for dissemination of materials, which I love, but there are already organizations beginning that very same work. Better conversations will only make that work stronger and better understandable for the laity. We need better networks and partnerships between all involved stakeholders to get the information where it needs to go – out of the ivory towers of the American Academy of Religion and into the hands of small group Bible studies and missional communities and youth groups. And the piece that remained unsaid throughout the session was that we Anglicans desperately need those clergy and lay people who can translate these important Anglican beliefs and knowledge from academy-speak into accessible language for the parishes and missions around the world.